Monday, May 31, 2010

2 hours and 54 minutes into my 3 hour long online exam I came to the realization that: a) I was never going to finish the 75 short essays, but at least my 50 multiple choice answers were probably right, and b)holy crap the internet connection is lost. I'm not sure which on of these epiphanies was most horrifying - but I chose right then and there to ignore both. Although when I tried to submit my exam at 3 hours and 19 seconds, despite the obvious, it did not go through ::shock and surprise:: At this point, more importantly, I figured out that I couldn't e-mail my professor for the 2nd time today to share the berevity of my internet catastraphe's with him. When I finally regained the internet, I desperately e-mailed him my excuse (which was not so much an excuse, but a desperate plea for yet a 3rd chance) - I received a pleasently fast and vague response which I took to mean that I can retry the exam tomorrow.

I think the important point of this little tale is, that now I will have wasted 6 plus hours on one exam. "The joys of being a grad student"

p.s. In the midst of this crisis - the air conditioner has went on strike...

Sunday, May 2, 2010

I suffer from a very dramatic and debilitating fear of being along after dark. A fear which I am convinced has been cast upon me by socially constructed misconceptions. In fact, I believe it is one of the few things that both the news and Hollywood conflate on a regular basis. It is almost certain that a women home alone at night will either be raped and/or murdered; or is certainly single which ultimately means depressed and pining away for Mr. Right - which is portrayed in an equally horrific light. Instead of fulfilling the purpose of warning women with the dangers of solo activity and arming them with the knowledge of how to maintain a secure environment, media is actually inflicting an irrational fear of the dark onto them, myself included. Although, obviously some locations present an added threat, statistically speaking living in a constant pattern of fear is unnecessary.

I wonder if the propensity of these story lines are sponsored by alarm companies..